We would like to thank everyone for coming out to Cupcakefest a few weeks ago, despite the rain. We were astonished with the number of donations we received for the Liberty Humane Society. They estimate that they received approximately $1500 worth of donations, making this one of their biggest donation drives ever!

Below are some of the winners that entered our raffle! All proceeds were donated to the Liberty Humane Society.

Thank you to our great sponsors!
ISBRE
DogBone Art
Johnny Cupcakes
MooShoes
Simple Shoes

This awesome video of the Cupcake-Eating Contest at Cupcakefest 2009 was filmed & edited by Dave Weinbrecht. Thanks Dave!

Also, a big round of applause to our Cupcake-Eating Contest contestants (from L-R): Jonathan, Chris H., Joel, Chris M. and Erik! Congratulations to our winner, Chris Hoyt!!

**AWESOME NEWS!!**

We’re going to be holding a CUPCAKE-EATING CONTEST at around 5:30pm on Saturday. If interested, be sure to let a Sweet Ave. employee know as early as possible on Saturday. Entry fee is $10, and we will only accept the first FIVE entrants. The rules are simple. First person to consume 10 cupcakes wins! Winner receives an awesome Sweet Ave. gift certificate, a free t-shirt, and a belly full of cupcakes.

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Raffle prizes:
-Shirts from DogBone Art
-Shirt prize packs from Johnny Cupcakes
-Simple Shoes gift certificates
-MooShoes gift certificate
-Custom-made Sweet Avenue Flip Mino video camera !!
-Free Mini Cupcakes!
-Free water provided by Isbre
-And more!
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The event is still going on, rain or shine! Let’s hope the rain gods are kind to us!

Again please note, that we will be closing our shop at 5pm to enjoy the festivities at the park. We will also be closed the next day – Sunday, June 14th. Hope to see you at Cupcakefest!

Cupcakefest (a day of cupcakes & music!)
2pm-8pm
Lincoln Park in Rutherford, NJ (across the street from our shop)

Since we’re getting close to Cupcakefest now, we figured it’s time to start posting about more of the awesome prizes we’ll be raffling off. Remember, all the proceeds from our raffles will be going to the Liberty Humane Society to help feed and care for their animals. Without further ado, here’s one of our favorite of the prizes:

What we’ve got here is an awesome Flip Mino video camera. What’s even more awesome about this one is that it’s emblazoned with our new logo! This little guy records awesome video at the touch of a button to its internal memory. It has an internal rechargeable battery, and a built-in USB connector to plug into your computer. There’s also software included for one-touch uploading to YouTube and MySpace. It’s pretty awesome, and one of you lucky people is going to win it (along with even more prizes, to be announced soon!).

More info available at the Flip Mini website.

So you may be wondering… what IS Cupcakefest? I’m here to tell you. Cupcakefest is a day of cupcakes and music presented by Sweet Avenue Bake Shop (that’s us!).

This year we will be raffling off awesome prizes and collecting donations for the Liberty Humane Society in Jersey City, NJ. Liberty Humane Society is a shelter in an area that is easy to get to, with plenty of parking and room to grow. The shelter is managed by experts committed to ending animal overpopulation and irresponsible ownership.

So what about the music? Our main draw is a great group of bands who plan on putting on an awesome show for you. All musicians are local to NJ/NY. The bands are:
-Job Well Done [Website]
-Kieran Hobler [MySpace]
-Right as Rain [MySpace] [Facebook]
-Diminishing Returns [MySpace] [Facebook]
-Brian Keith & Kristina Capurso
-Those Mockingbirds [MySpace] [Facebook]

So what about the cupcakes? We’ll be giving out as many free mini cupcakes throughout the day as we can manage. And we’ll also have other cupcake-related activities throughout the day. More details about this as we get closer to the event. Also look out for some cute cupcake-themed gifts through our raffles.

Saturday, June 13th, 2009
2pm-8pm
@ Lincoln Park in Rutherford, NJ (across the street from our shop / across from Rutherford Borough Hall)

Cupcakefest 2009 is coming up quickly: JUNE 13TH – MARK YOUR CALENDERS!!!

We’re currently working with sponsors to donate prizes for our Cupcakefest raffles (with all proceeds going to the Liberty Humane Society in Jersey City). We still need more gifts donated from generous companies who want to help out a needy animal shelter. If you or anyone you know is part of a company that would be interested in donating for a good cause, please let us know ASAP.

In addition, if you or anyone you know makes cupcake-related crafts, let us know! We’d love to be able to raffle off some awesome cupcake-related prizes as well.

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Let us know that you’re attending on our Cupcakefest Facebook Event Page.

And Then There Were Machines performed second at Cupcakefest. They are a five-piece pop punk band from NJ. Their set consisted of all original songs, which can be heard on their MySpace page. Amanda Hansult from The Aquarian had this to say about their set:

Next up was female-fronted punk/rock band, And Then There Were Machines, who just recently finished playing big festival shows such as the Warped Tour and Bamboozle. They rocked it with a set full of upbeat original songs and, though I hate to do it just because I’m sure they’re hearing it from everyone, their lead singer has some pipes on her and I couldn’t help but think of that cute little redhead that’s blasting through everyone’s speakers right now. I’m sure you all know who I’m talking about; I will, though, say that they do have their own unique sound and are definitive in their own style and presence and that the comparison is meant to be a compliment based purely on vocal ability, that’s all (myspace.com/andthenthereweremachines).

Unfortunately this is the only video we have of And Then There Were Machines at the moment, but if anything else becomes available, we’ll link to it here.

Congratulations to Tara & Paul who won one of the coolest prizes given away at Cupcakefest! This prize was donated by Leafygreen.info and included a digital camera donated by Mack Camera among other cool prizes! The awesome bag was donated by Intoxicated Zodiac.

Congratulations to the rest of our winners as well, who won prizes like:
-Sweet Avenue Gift Basket filled with cupcake decorating supplies like liners, sprinkles, and a cupcake decorating book. This also included a Sweet Avenue tank top, and other various cupcake goodies!
-Gift bag from Green Apple Cleaners, which contained a gift certificate and laundry detergent.
-Two cupcake baking kits
-A salt lamp!
-Autonomie Project gift certificate
-Two Simple Shoes gift certificates
-A couple of pairs of Teko Socks
-Numi Tea gift set
-Gift certificate for carbon offsets provided by Rock ‘n Renew
-And lots more!!

We’re finally getting around to posting some of the awesome video from Cupcakefest. First up is Brian Keith’s set. Brian’s set consisted of folksy, alt-country, singer-songwriter covers. Amanda Hansult from The Aquarian had this to say about Brian’s set:

First on stage was Brian Keith, a local musician that brought us a beautiful acoustic set of covers. Though he was onstage alone, he still managed to captivate the crowd and keep all eyes and ears where they should be-on him (myspace.com/brianlapierre).

Brian did a great job of kicking off our show, and we all loved his set. Videos from his set can be seen at your choice of these video sites:

Vimeo (Highest quality)
YouTube
Facebook (Must be a member)